[Shop-talk] changing times...

[Jack Brooks]

I will second both Doug and you Jeff!

While I will always regret selling my ’74 Norton Commando, I love driving my TR3 and TR8.  They both sing to me, just like the amazing sound of the straight six in your TR.

Jack

From: Shop-talk <shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net> On Behalf Of Jeff Scarbrough
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2022 8:04 AM
To: shop-talk at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] changing times...

In the same vein..for what I have in my old British car, I could buy something much more modern, more powerful, and safer too.  But I'm no longer in a hurry to "get there" and I'd rather listen to the music a 2500cc Triumph I-6 makes anyway...

On Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 09:05 old dirtbeard <dirtbeard at gmail.com<mailto:dirtbeard at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Mark,

Thank you, a poignant and well written piece for those of us who are getting older...

Times pass, but with our shops, our tools, and our knowledge, we can keep these old British bikes, or old Harleys running as well if not better than they did 50 or 60 years ago. I have my 50 year old BSA Thumper that I posted the photos and video of, but I also have a 2013 Aprillia 1000cc V4 with all of the modern electronic components. I still ride both of them. They both are very good at what they do, but I have been imprinted on the BSA.

In the spirit of shop talk, over the last 50 years that I have owned the BSA, I have used my tools, knowledge and workshops to increase the displacement to 600cc, ported the head, installed larger diameter exhaust, larger valves, a larger 1000 series Amal carburetor, a Weber racing cam, electronic ignition, modified the dry sump oil-in-frame supply to dual feed to better circulate and cool the oil, fabricated and a routed pressure-fed oil line to the rockers to better oil and cool the valve gear, installed a full-flow oil filter on the oil return circuit, higher voltage ignition coil, solid state electrical rectification and regulation, improved clutch plates and stronger clutch springs to withstand the increased power, modern brake linings arced to the drums to be able to stop the bike at high speed (not quite as good as dual front disc brakes, but I can lock the front wheel if I try), modern Avon tires that grip the road and handle extremely well (deep lean angles), rewired the entire electrical harness with vibration-proof connectors and larger gauge wire with abrasion-resistant vinyl insulation, running Motul 10w60 double ester synthetic oil in the engine, synthetic gear lube in the transmission, etc.  It is not just a hot rod, it has much improved lubrication, electrical, and braking systems now.

Although this bike is 50 years old, it runs stronger and is more reliable now than it was from the factory. It can run with the modern sport bikes on the twisty roads you saw in the video.

Old British motorcycles potentially are the ideal "vehicle" for us to exercise our tools and our skills in the shop. They are the perfect "canvas" to paint a masterpiece, and one that you can ride and enjoy for the rest of our lives.

I recently was riding the twisty hill roads shown in the video when I passed a young man on a Suzuki sport bike. I later stopped at the overlook in the one photo and he also pulled up to chat. He "complained" that he could not hear his engine in order to shift it properly when I was in front of him because my BSA was so loud. He also said my tires were too skinny to ride that fast, etc.

Not wishing to deter from his riding enjoyment, I let him leave first so he could lead and my loud thumping engine and skinny tires would not deter from his riding. After a couple of curves I passed him again.

I am 68, my bike is 50 years-old, and the young man was on a new GSX. These old bikes are lighter and have deeper torque,

These old bikes, and these old men, can still ride, and no amount of electronic wizardry can change that...  :-)

best,

Doug



On Wed, Apr 20, 2022 at 8:31 PM Mark Bradakis <mark at bradakis.com<mailto:mark at bradakis.com>> wrote:

I wish I knew where this came from.  Have no idea who the author might
be, sad to say.

mjb.

============

As I watch the Japanese crotch-rockets blasting the circuits,
I am suffused with a distilled sense of wonder, and I marvel;
these men and women are so skilled, perfect machines riding on
perfect machines.  Their bikes are precision instruments built by
precision instruments, sold in their multitude to the techno-dazed.

About ten years ago, I was out earholing on a norton-racer-road in
coastal Marin county (north of San Francisco) on my '75 Commando.
Rolled up to a stop sign.  A guy on an old 500cc BSA thumper came
around the corner facing me, leaned through the corner, dialed up
the wick, and thumped on up the hill.  I shut nort down to listen
to the sound of that long-stroke single haul that hill.  I was
thrilled; I could feel the sound through the soles of my boots.
All these years later, when I remember that sound, that fine sound,
I choke, and tears fill my eyes.  As that quiet thump, thump,
thump, faded up the hill, me and nort sat and thought of dinosaurs.
It was a good day to think about dinosaurs, one of those crisp,
perfect Marin autumn days.  Back then, me and my dinosaur could
still swat the Japanese flies buzzing around the hills, those
primordial crotch-rockets, awesome machines that have come to be
so strong, strong enough to eat me and nort for breakfast.

These ten years gone, I'm now flogging that British oil-bath around
the Rockies.  But the king is dead (long live the king!), and
I'm the dinosaur now, breathing the last breath of extinction;
fading quietly, thump, thump, thump up that hill.  But I wonder,
where went the soul, where went the art, where went the heart?

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